Centre ignored red flags as Indians were made ‘cyber slaves’ in Myanmar

India has been caught napping with cybercriminals entrapping a large number of Indians as “slaves” in a Myanmar conflict zone that has become a security nightmare for New Delhi.

Criminals managed to “dupe” the information technology (IT) professionals numbering over a hundred from various parts of India by offering fake jobs in Thailand, reportedly between July and August. The unfortunate turn of events took place despite the fact that the Centre was made aware of the “fake recruitment” racket in July itself, sources said.

Early warnings ignored

The Indian mission in Yangon had observed as early as on July 5 that some lT companies engaged in digital scamming / forge crypto activities located in remote eastern border areas of Myanmar are recruiting Indian workers from different places through their recruiting agents on the pretext of potential employment opportunities in lT sector.

The Indian mission in Thailand had also warned about the fake-job racket, issuing an advisory in August.

Also read: First batch of rescued Indians used as ‘digital slaves’ in Myanmar return home

This has obviously raised the question as to why the External Affairs Ministry waited till Saturday (September 24) to issue an advisory in India about the fake job racket believed to be operated by murky Chinese business networks in partnership with mutually hostile armed groups engaged in intense fighting at Kayin (Karen) state in southeast Myanmar.

Had the government widely circulated the information within the country as it has done now after  theTamil Nadu government raised the alarm, many IT professionals could have been prevented from falling into the trap, sources familiar with the development said.

They pointed out that the existence of the international racket came to light last December when a Malaysian youth held captive by the cyber-crime syndicate was sent home.

As many as 35 of its citizens who were victims of the job scam had been rescued from Myanmar by Malaysia by June this year — days before India finally took note of the threat in July.

Little attention in India

Surprisingly, even after the fraud was brought to its notice by its mission in Myanmar, the MEA left it to its embassy in Yangon to issue an advisory. That it did not get widely noticed in India is evident from the huge number of Indian victims who got trapped there.

The MEA last week said 100-150 Indians were held captive by the crime syndicate in the Myawaddy district of Kayin state. Unofficial sources, however, put the number at anywhere between 300 and 500.

Also read: A year after the coup, Myanmar army faces chaos and resistance

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, in a September 21 letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said his government had information that 300 Indians, including 50 Tamils, were held in illegal captivity in Myanmar. 

Modus operandi of scamsters

The modus operandi of the syndicates is to lure IT-skilled youths to lucrative data entry jobs in Thailand, promising a monthly salary ranging between $5,000 and $8,000, sources said. The so-called job openings are advertised through social media as well as recruiting agents based in Dubai and India.

The “recruits” are then taken to Thailand using the visa-on-arrival facility.  On arrival in Thailand, they are taken to Mae Sot in Tak Province. From there, they are made to cross the Moei River at night to illegally enter Myawaddy. They were then forced to work as scammers in the facilities set up in the remote bordering state.

India’s rescue bid with the help of Myanmar’s military regime could not make much headway, and only about 32 people have been freed so far.

The main hurdle in the rescue mission is that the area where the IT professionals are held hostage is controlled by one of the oldest ethnic armed groups of Myanmar, the Karen National Union (KNU) and its armed wing, the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA).

The rebels have now sided with pro-democracy groups and are fighting the Border Guard Force (BGF), a unit of military junta that seized power in Myanmar in a coup in February last year. The BGF mainly consist of former Karen rebels who are mostly Buddhist. The KNU and the KNLA are predominantly Christians.

Chinese crime networks have partnered with Karen rebels as well as the BGF to run their criminal activities from the conflict zone in Myanmar, according to a report by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

“In total, 157 sq km of Burmese territory have fallen under control of Chinese enterprises tied to gambling, money laundering, cryptocurrency, and even criminal networks,” reported the American Federal institution established by the US Congress for promoting conflict resolution and prevention worldwide.

Hampered by junta ties

India’s close ties with the junta have further hampered its effort to free its citizens from the rebel-controlled territory.

Also read: Myanmar events do not augur well for India’s security interests

India’s post-coup Myanmar policy has already drawn flak from various quarters, including pro-democracy groups in Myanmar.

Friendship and ties between India and Myanmar in future would not be the same again as “people of Myanmar would not forget where the Government of India stood in their trying times,” observed Zin Mar Aung, the foreign minister of the Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), a government in exile formed by the deposed lawmakers and parliamentarians.

“Although the Myanmar military’s actions have fundamentally undermined India’s interests, New Delhi continues to maintain close ties with the junta — an institution universally reviled in Myanmar, and which has once again turned Myanmar into a global pariah,” the USIP said in another report in May this year.

“If instead, India was to distance from the military junta, provide humanitarian assistance to Myanmar refugees, and engage the deposed NUG in Myanmar, it would not only strengthen the democracy movement in Myanmar in a way that could help conclude the civil war, but it would generate enormous goodwill from the Myanmar public that would benefit India’s long-term interests in the country,” it added.

Apart from the recent human trafficking for cybercrimes, the Thailand-Myanmar border crossing at Myawaddy is also a concerned for New Delhi for being a primary transit route of drugs, illegal arms and even exotic animals that are being smuggled into India, said sources in the Assam Rifles that guard the India-Myanmar border.